Nicomachean Ethics: Book III: Section 3

3

Do we deliberate about everything, and is everything a possible
subject of deliberation, or is deliberation impossible about some
things? We ought presumably to call not what a fool or a madman
would deliberate about, but what a sensible man would deliberate
about, a subject of deliberation. Now about eternal things no one
deliberates, e.g. about the material universe or the
incommensurability of the diagonal and the side of a square. But no
more do we deliberate about the things that involve movement but
always happen in the same way, whether of necessity or by nature or
from any other cause, e.g. the solstices and the risings of the stars;
nor about things that happen now in one way, now in another, e.g.
droughts and rains; nor about chance events, like the finding of
treasure. But we do not deliberate even about all human affairs; for
instance, no Spartan deliberates about the best constitution for the
Scythians. For none of these things can be brought about by our own
efforts.

We deliberate about things that are in our power and can be done;
and these are in fact what is left. For nature, necessity, and
chance are thought to be causes, and also reason and everything that
depends on man. Now every class of men deliberates about the things
that can be done by their own efforts. And in the case of exact and
self-contained sciences there is no deliberation, e.g. about the
letters of the alphabet (for we have no doubt how they should be
written); but the things that are brought about by our own efforts,
but not always in the same way, are the things about which we
deliberate, e.g. questions of medical treatment or of money-making.
And we do so more in the case of the art of navigation than in that of
gymnastics, inasmuch as it has been less exactly worked out, and again
about other things in the same ratio, and more also in the case of the
arts than in that of the sciences; for we have more doubt about the
former. Deliberation is concerned with things that happen in a certain
way for the most part, but in which the event is obscure, and with
things in which it is indeterminate. We call in others to aid us in
deliberation on important questions, distrusting ourselves as not
being equal to deciding.

We deliberate not about ends but about means. For a doctor does
not deliberate whether he shall heal, nor an orator whether he shall
persuade, nor a statesman whether he shall produce law and order,
nor does any one else deliberate about his end. They assume the end
and consider how and by what means it is to be attained; and if it
seems to be produced by several means they consider by which it is
most easily and best produced, while if it is achieved by one only
they consider how it will be achieved by this and by what means this
will be achieved, till they come to the first cause, which in the
order of discovery is last. For the person who deliberates seems to
investigate and analyse in the way described as though he were
analysing a geometrical construction (not all investigation appears to
be deliberation- for instance mathematical investigations- but all
deliberation is investigation), and what is last in the order of
analysis seems to be first in the order of becoming. And if we come on
an impossibility, we give up the search, e.g. if we need money and
this cannot be got; but if a thing appears possible we try to do it.
By 'possible' things I mean things that might be brought about by
our own efforts; and these in a sense include things that can be
brought about by the efforts of our friends, since the moving
principle is in ourselves. The subject of investigation is sometimes
the instruments, sometimes the use of them; and similarly in the other
cases- sometimes the means, sometimes the mode of using it or the
means of bringing it about. It seems, then, as has been said, that man
is a moving principle of actions; now deliberation is about the things
to be done by the agent himself, and actions are for the sake of
things other than themselves. For the end cannot be a subject of
deliberation, but only the means; nor indeed can the particular
facts be a subject of it, as whether this is bread or has been baked
as it should; for these are matters of perception. If we are to be
always deliberating, we shall have to go on to infinity.

The same thing is deliberated upon and is chosen, except that the
object of choice is already determinate, since it is that which has
been decided upon as a result of deliberation that is the object of
choice. For every one ceases to inquire how he is to act when he has
brought the moving principle back to himself and to the ruling part of
himself; for this is what chooses. This is plain also from the ancient
constitutions, which Homer represented; for the kings announced
their choices to the people. The object of choice being one of the
things in our own power which is desired after deliberation, choice
will be deliberate desire of things in our own power; for when we have
decided as a result of deliberation, we desire in accordance with
our deliberation.

We may take it, then, that we have described choice in outline,
and stated the nature of its objects and the fact that it is concerned
with means.